My wife Robyn and I’s first born son Ezra died in 2010. He had been diagnosed with cancer on the 400th day of his life, and lived exactly 800 days. Ezra battled cancer half his life. He smiled through most of it. He was funny, curious, and compassionate. He flirted with strangers. He learned to...

Eventually in this post I’ll get to us switching to Hyundais in the Matthews home! Robyn and I first met Ashley Martin Burnette‘s mom Nicole at the NMTRC Symposium in 2014. She is a vibrant cancer-mom, much like Robyn, and I enjoyed hearing her words as we sat in group discussions around the future and present of...

Over a year ago, I wrote a note on my phone with thoughts on how I’d like our family’s life to look. I was feeling very reactionary, responding to things as they happened and not having a clear written set of goals for how we approach life. Since last April, I look at this list at least...

Robyn and I moved to Tampa from Seattle in 2005 to help out my family, who’d moved here in 2003. Our plan was always to move home after a few years, and until the last few years that’s what we were gearing up for. Now, we’re loving Tampa, and all in as a part of this...

Yesterday, my son Charles and I returned from 2 weeks in Uganda. I wrote some of my thoughts on Uganda‘s culture while there. As we flew 9000 miles to return home, I reflected how much the beauty of eastern Uganda had settled my mind; God’s green brush strokes on a red dirt canvas. We have a tendency, in the states,...

tl;dr – I spent two weeks in Uganda this June, and fell in love with the country. Uganda is a burst of color. The brash reddish brown dirt trampled under every public space is matched in vibrancy by the ever-present greens of tropical plant life. Pair these with the proud brightness of the locals’ clothing,...

We recently canceled our cable. It’s been about 4 months now, so I thought I’d share how it’s gone. In a nutshell – great. Our Setup Pre-Cancel We had Brighthouse cable here in Tampa, with high-speed internet (40 MB/s). The total cost each month with HBO/Showtime was around $240/month. As digital video has become more...

I spent some time at the High Plains Raceway in September. The event was an MCCA – CECA open model event. The cars were pretty crazy, so I took some pics. Click here to see all the pics and a couple short vids.